XCII
Original air date: 3/11/17 (produced in 2016)
Fifty years have passed since Samurai Jack arrived in the future. Jack, who is now immortal, has been slipping into madness from the lack of progress on his quest. As he finds his psyche becoming his worst enemy, he confronts the flamboyant robot assassin, Scaramouche. Meanwhile, an Aku-worshiping cult trains seven female warriors called the Daughters of Aku to eventually assassinate the Samurai.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: The High Priestess is absolutely merciless to the daughters of Aku, whom she gave birth to herself. She trains them all intensely with only one goal: Kill Samurai Jack.
- The Ageless: Jack is revealed to be immortal because his ageing was affected by the spell Aku used when he flung Jack into the future.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "Why have you forsaken us? Have you forgotten, my son?"
- Awesome, but Impractical: Jack uses Scaramouche's dao against him to deliver the final blow, but unlike the assassin, he does not possess robotic super strengh or stand as tall as two men, so he ends up dragging the big blade behind him and the finishing strike he uses is sluggish from hefting it up. Understandably, Jack does not claim it for his own after the battle because of the weight and size. Instead, he claims Scaramouche's much more practical and useful tuning fork dagger.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: The emoji family that Jack saves at the beginning of the episode. Not a pleasant experience for the daughter when robot oil oozes beneath her own feet.
- Batman Gambit: Scaramouche says he slaughtered the village solely to bring Jack to him. He's surprised it took so long for Jack to show up.
- Beard of Sorrow: Jack grows a beard after spending 50 years in the future not having aged a day with absolutely no luck in defeating Aku, as well as having lost his sword which is the only thing capable of harming Aku.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Three civilians are surrounded by robots and about to be killed. Then Jack comes riding in on his motorcycle.
- Subverted later in the episode. Jack hears an explosion and sees smoke rising off in the distance, but instead of charging to the rescue he merely turns and rides away. By the time he does turn to the village, it's far too late.
- Blatant Lies: The leader of the Daughters of Aku tells Ashi that Jack is the one causing misery and death through the land. Obviously, we know that's far from the truth.
- Brawn Hilda: The prepubescent Daughters of Aku were forced to defend against an, as Aku would have put it,
"extra thick" cultist member by their mother during their early training days. She delivered a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the young girls equally, with special mention to Ashi being on the receiving end of dangling, one arm beatdown only visible through the shadows. - Call-Back: The beginning of this season starts with Jack fighting an army of robot beetles, just as he did at the start of the original series.
- The Cameo: Though Aku is unseen in this episode, his voice is briefly heard over Scaramouche's phone.
- Child Soldiers: The daughters of Aku are trained from birth to fight Jack.
- Cool Bike: Jack now rides a motorcycle to travel the world.
- Cool Mask: Jack has one at the start of the episode, but a beetle drone gets the drop on him and slashes it in half, thus setting the stage for The Reveal that this is actually Jack in that armor, and a much different one than we've come to know. If it had remained intact, we wouldn't have gotten to identify him.
- Cute Mute: The Emoji family are adorable, blue-skinned humanoids who communicate by displaying words and pictures (emojis) between the antennae on their heads.
- Despair Event Horizon: Jack has clearly crossed it—constantly tormented with guilt for not having found a way back home and ending Aku's reign.
- Disappeared Dad: We have no idea what happened to the Emoji family's father or if there even is one, given that they're aliens and Truly Single Parent can't be ruled out.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The High Priestess sends Ashi to a brutal beatdown just for looking at the outside world.
- Downer Beginning: We open with Jack saving innocents, but he's noticeably a hardier man and struggling with his failures. His narration reflects that he's lost hope after losing his enchanted sword, the only weapon capable of killing Aku.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: During their training, Ashi slips from a ledge and is left dangling. The nearest sister immediately tries to help her, though she is ordered by the High Priestess to halt.
- Eye Scream: One of the Daughters stabs one of their trainers in the eye.
- Face Death with Dignity: The Emoji family are surrounded by the robots and see no chance for escape. They express their love for each other and simply brace for death, though they're saved by Jack's arrival.
- Flashback: A short one showing Jack's sword falling down a pit. Also the images of the dark rider in samurai armor.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: As ever, Aku's servants denounce Jack as a terror on the land that must be eliminated.
- Homage: Scaramouche
- Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" is where his name comes from.
- His manner of speech is an imitation of Sammy Davis Jr.
- Incoming Ham: Scaramouche's first line is a flamboyant "Saam-Mah-Rai Jaaaaaaaaack!", immediately showing off his goofiness.
- Inner Thoughts, Outsider Puzzlement: Jack has a guilt-induced hallucination during the battle against Scaramouche and begins talking to his hallucination. We then cut to Scarmouche observing Jack talking to someone who isn't there. Scaramouche promptly decides that Jack has gone nuts.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Scaramouche compliments Jack's "world-famous scowl."
- The way Scaramouche greets Jack at the village alludes to how fans waited quite a number of years in real life for more episodes.Scaramouche: Man, it is good to see ya, babe. What took you so long?
- Little "No": Jack's reaction to the Armor-Piercing Question.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The Daughters of Aku are first seen as babies when the High Priestess gives birth to them.
- Mood Whiplash: In the middle of battle, Jack experiences another guilt-ridden hallucination of the victims of Scaramouche's attack... only to cut to the assassin's baffled expression.Scaramouche: That samurai has gone beaucoup cuckoo.
- Motive Decay: Deconstructed. 50 years of Walking the Earth, winning only small battles, and never achieving his ultimate goal have taken their toll on Jack. He's also lost his sword and in the process, his only way to defeat Aku in combat. The hallucinations reflect the guilt he feels for all this."You never came back. You left us. You abandoned your purpose!"
- Motor Mouth: Scaramouche talks constantly during his fight with Jack. He can control his scimitar by scat singing non-stop.
- Musical Assassin: Scaramouche, who is able to control objects in the world around him with a flute and make his scimitar fly around on its own by scatting.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jack sees a fire in the distance and makes an effort to AVOID going there. It takes two hallucinations of his father calling him out to snap him out of it, but everyone in the village is already dead by the time he heads there.
- Pet the Dog: Subverted. As her sisters get pummeled by an older and larger opponent, Ashi sneaks off and ends up looking at the world outside through a crack in the wall. The High Priestess catches her, but at first, she talks quite pleasantly about how the world is indeed a beautiful place and that it must be protected at all costs. Then she tosses Ashi back into the ring and tells the opponent to teach the kid a lesson.
- Perspective Flip: When Jack starts imagining dead children in the ruins of the village he fights Scaramouche in, we first see the frightening mental images in Jack's mind, then cut to Scaramouche staring nonplussed at Jack, who's seemingly talking to a bunch of rocks and imagining them talking back. It's darkly amusing.
- Religion of Evil: There's one dedicated to Aku, though it's unclear which of them are genuinely evil and not Obliviously Evil Knight Templar's.
- Sanity Slippage: Jack is beginning to lose his grip on reality, having lost his sword and hallucinating a frightening samurai on a horse.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Apparently Jack is going through some sort of PTSD from an incident in the past. He sees visions of his parents, dead bodies, and kids asking for his help and accusing him of abandoning them. What's more, he keeps seeing a vision of a man on a horse and in samurai armor.
- Starter Villain: Scaramouche, the self-proclaimed favorite assassin of Aku, is Jack's first opponent in this season, largely to show that even without his sword, Jack is no less a tough opponent.
- Time Skip:
- Takes place over 50 years after Jack was first sent into the future. Jack has gotten older (although he doesn't physically age) and now has a beard, but noticeably he's lost his sword since we saw him last. Later episodes would expand on how this happened and why.
- The Daughters of Aku have one each time they are shown. First is their birth. Second as children. Third as pre-teens. And their last and final timeskip has them as teens or young adults.
- Training from Hell: The Daughters of Aku were put through the wringer. They were regularly beaten by stronger opponents until they won, they weren't allowed to help each other, and any mistake was met with more pain.
- Underestimating Badassery: Scaramouche thought Jack would be easy prey without his sword.
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Jack takes Scaramouche's sword as his own after slicing him in half. He leaves the big one because it's too heavy for him.
- Villains Out Shopping: It wasn't just a taunt when Scaramouche says he's calling Aku to tell him Jack lost his sword, Aku actually answers his phone.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Daughters of Aku serve him not out of fear, but of genuine loyalty.
- Virtue Is Weakness: The daughters are told to never help each other.
- The Voice: Aku in this episode is only heard over Scaramouche's phone when he tries to call him about Jack losing his sword.
- Wham Episode: Turns out that Jack lost his sword.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After he avoids checking out the fire, the hallucinations of Jack's parents and people condemn him for never finding a way home."You've forgotten your purpose! YOU'VE FORSAKEN US!"
